Financial Crime

4th December 2019

Swiss court rebuffs FINMA’s seizure of bank BSI money in 1MDB case

Swiss financial markets supervisor FINMA must reconsider its confiscation of 95 million Swiss francs ($95.27 million) from Banca della Svizzera Italiana (BSI), after a court called its calculation of the amount seized “incomprehensible”. BSI was bought by EFG International in 2016 from Brazil’s BTG Pactual after becoming tangled in legal… Read More

4th December 2019

Nordea Wins Danish Court Battle to Ban Staff Trading in Bitcoin

Nordea Bank is free to prevent its employees from investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in their own time, a Danish court ruled. The risks associated with cryptocurrencies justify the restriction, according to a verdict published on the Copenhagen-based court’s website late Monday. Denmark’s union for financial… Read More

2nd December 2019

Vatican Posed Security Threat, Says Financial Watchdog After Suspension

An international network of financial watchdogs said the Vatican’s handling of confidential information posed “an evident security threat to our organization,” in a statement explaining why it suspended the Vatican from access to its information earlier this month. The Egmont Group, a Toronto-based network of more than 160 national… Read More

29th November 2019

Ukraine’s central bank blames Kolomoisky for campaign of intimidation

Ukraine’s central bank has issued an unprecedented statement accusing local oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, the former owner of nationalized lender PrivatBank, of orchestrating a campaign of intimidation against the institution and its staff. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has been targeted by protesters accusing the bank’s management of corruption and… Read More

29th November 2019

Top HSBC Risk Head to Take Sabbatical as Bank Faces BOE Warnings

HSBC Holdings Plc’s head of operational risk, who has been in the role for almost six years, has asked to take a sabbatical. Mark Cooke, whose role involves overseeing non-financial risks such as financial crime, staff misconduct and compliance breaches, has requested a sabbatical, the bank said in an email. Read More

27th November 2019

Swedish bank SEB missed money laundering ‘red flags’ in Estonia: TV report

Swedish Television (SVT) reported on Wednesday that it had obtained a list of 194 clients of Swedish bank SEB (SEBa.ST) connected to suspected money laundering in Estonia. The public broadcaster’s investigative show “Uppdrag Granskning” reported that the client list, which also showed about 2,000 transactions, contained “red flags”… Read More

27th November 2019

Money-Laundering Trouble Spot Says It’s Turned Over a New Leaf

After a string of bank closures and a high-level bribery scandal put it at the heart of Europe’s dirty-money storm last year, Latvia declared efforts to clean up its act a success. The Baltic nation of 1.9 million people, once seen by clients in the former Soviet Union as a… Read More

27th November 2019

Pope defends raid on financial unit despite criticism

AP — Pope Francis defended a controversial raid on the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency, saying Tuesday it showed the Vatican’s in-house system of checks was working. Francis said he authorized the Oct. 1 raid after the Vatican criminal prosecutor came to him with evidence of corruption involving a Holy See investment… Read More

26th November 2019

Despite Scandal, Cyprus Will Keep Selling Golden Visas, EU Passports

Cyprus has no plans to stop selling Golden Visas to rich foreigners who invest in the country despite the government’s admission there were laws that let them acquire residency permits and European Union passports without being property vetted – leading to 26 being removed. Cypriot Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides said… Read More

22nd November 2019

Swedbank May Have Breached US Sanctions Against Russia, SVT Reports

Swedbank AB may have violated U.S. sanctions against Russia by facilitating the transfer of about 10 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from gun maker Kalashnikov to a U.S. subsidiary in Florida, according to a report by Swedish state broadcaster SVT. After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the U.S. imposed sanctions… Read More